Tuesday, 25 August 2015

The language of demonisation – and the language of change

It’s not
often that the media has much actual meat to get its teeth into during the
annual silly season, but this summer has been an exception.

There has,
of course, been the ongoing issue of many thousands of people attempting to
flee into Europe from war and poverty.

That some
have then made it to Calais, where they have attempted – and are still
attempting – to circumvent security and make it to the UK via the Chunnel,
however dangerous the journey, has given rise to a particular strand of
coverage in the last couple of months.

The lurid,
sensationalist language of invasion and of insects – yes, Mr Cameron, I am looking
at you, with your use of “swarm” – has again indicated the piss-poor nature of
British public and political discourse.

For some
in the right-wing media, it brought with it the equally wonderful opportunity
to bash the BBC as Auntie filmed an edition of Songs
of Praise from a makeshift chapel in the Calais camps where migrants are
staying.

Many are the same sort of people who waste no opportunity to intone how ‘we are still a
Christian country,’ but either their knowledge of actual Christianity is sadly
lacking or they simply don’t mind being steaming hypocrites who have no
intention of actually acting and thinking on the basis of that religion.

The idea
that showing human compassion – never mind the variety recommended by Jesus
(according to the Good Book) – is automatically a synonym for ‘let them all in’
would be ridiculous were it not for the way that it has been taken up by
substantial numbers of people who appear incapable of rational thought.

The
vicious hate to be seen on newspaper forums, on social media etc about the
issue can make you despair. It’s yet another example of how easy the
demonisation of ‘others’ is – and it’s a salutary reminder of how what happened
in Germany in the 1930s did happen.

Always
easier, of course, when many in the population are struggling, have little
security and see little hope for improvement.

Anyone
claiming that ‘we’ can easily accommodate a few more thousand etc would
apparently be oblivious to the reality that, at present, ‘we’ cannot provide
work or a home for all those currently in the UK. And see the previous
paragraph.

Mass
immigration is also problematic in terms of economics quite simply because, in
increasing the size of the available labour market, it helps depress wages:
there is a reason that the likes of the CBI do not want restrictions on
immigration and even persuaded then Conservative leader Michael Howard out of
making manifesto pledges on reducing and restricting immigration.

It’s also
worth noting that this used to be the mainstream left-wing view on the subject
– before that metamorphosed into Tony Blair and his fellow neo-liberals.

And there
is a reason that Margaret Thatcher declared New Labour/Blair to be her
“greatest achievement”.

The long-term solution to the migrant situation need to be global and need to involve the sort of peace and prosperity for all that will obviate the need or desire for hundreds of thousands of human beings to take great risks to improve their lives or even to survive. Anything else is mere sticking plasters.

Which
brings us rather adroitly to the summer’s second media circus – but one where, unlike the issue of would-be migrants, the right-wing media is failing to control the terms of discussion and use it as a means of further controlling the populace.

The Labour
Party’s leadership election has seen the astonishing rise of Jeremy Corbyn – “astonishing”, that is, if you don’t pay any attention to anything much at all.

In case
you missed it, things started getting messy when Corbyn got just enough
nominations to be included on the ballot – partly as a result of people
nominating him in order to expand the nature of the discussion that would occur
during the election process.

In
addition to this, the election process has been changed, with people able to
register with the Labour Party as a ‘supporter’ for £3, and then vote.

It’s a
clunky (to put it politely) mechanism – and unfair on activists who have spent
years in the party working for it on a voluntary basis – but the aim, of
opening up the process and encouraging engagement, is a valid one.

And it is one
that has been achieved.

But now
we’ve got the horror of loads of Trotskyist entryists trying to vote (for Corbyn,
of course), plus loads of Tories doing the same – as openly encouraged by the Telegraph, in an example of why it’s
days as a class newspaper are behind it.

For the
latter, the idea is that Corbyn as Labour leader would finish the party for
decades.

It’s good
to know how much some care about democracy.

The Labour
hierarchy is in meltdown, running around like headless chickens, while New
Labour grandees such as Blair himself and Peter Voldemort Mandelson warn that it would be the end
of life as we know it and they should stop the election itself.

Jackboot
Jack Straw has weighed in, and even Charles Clarke has popped up to leave most
scratching their heads and wondering who he was.

Blair in
particular managed to be particularly snide, asserting that, “if your heart’s
with Jeremy Corbyn, get a transplant”.

Packin' 'em in in Middlesbrough

Which,
given the way the Islington MP has been packin’ ’em in at rallies across the
country, and appears to be gaining support from across the spectrum of age,
gender, race etc, is a large number of people requiring radical cardio surgery.

One cannot help but wonder how an NHS that was helped on the path to privatisation by Blair will cope.

Behind all
this is the belief that a Labour Party headed by Corbyn cannot not possibly win
a general election.

Brits
don’t want a lefty – look what happened to Michael Foot etc. Actually, what
happened to Foot was that he was doing fine in the polls until Margaret
Thatcher had a little war that she was able to garner support from. It has not
been known, for years, as the ‘Falklands Factor’ for nothing.

But let’s
not allow facts to get in the way, eh?

Various
right-wing papers have been trying smears.

Having
already spoken to the market trader who sells him his vests (when it was all
still funny), and then failed to make allegations of anti-semitism stick, the Daily Mail ran out of material for
attempted smears and last week turned to an epic piece of fantasy fiction titled
“Prime Minister Corbyn … and the 1,000 days that destroyed Britain”.

Alternative
histories are a popular sub-genre: perhaps it’ll be nominated for a Hugo.

So a
simple question, folks: if Corbyn is ‘unelectable’, why has the right-wing
media suddenly gone from pointing and laughter to desperate attempts to smear?

And why
are the neo-liberal Blairites running so scared?

Well, the
reasons should be clear to anyone.

The right
is perfectly well aware that he could actually win (in an interview with the Huffington Post, Conservative grandee Ken
Clarke stated this quite clearly) – because the right knows that people
actually want an alternative to the neo-liberal hegemony of the last 30 years
and it knows that Corbyn presents the possibility of a Labour Party that offers
one.

The
general public show no sign of currently wanting a Labour Party that, quite
frankly, is little different from the present government.

They are
sick of career politicians who are smooth and slick – and never give a straight
answer.

Corbyn’s
campaign has been gracious and he has refused to stoop to the negative (there
has been negativity and nastiness from some supporters on all sides).

His
policies – far from being the “hard left” that so many are claiming: in that
previously-mentioned interview, Ken Clarke described him as not as left-wing as
Foot, and Clarke is no fool – are being welcomed widely.

And given
the continuing housing crisis in the UK, who can be surprised that the idea of
building more council housing would be welcomed?

Who can be
surprised that it’s popular to talk of renationalisation of the railways – just
as we learn that rail fares are rising by three times the rate of pay
increases?

Corbyn’s
economic ideas have received backing from 30-plus economists – and even a blog
from the Financial Times that
explained that his idea of ‘quantitative
easing for the people’ is not actually nonsense and could actually work (nor is
it wildly radical).

Even some
on the right are noting that, while they might disagree with his ideas, it’s
refreshing to see a conviction politician again.

Earlier
this year, Scottish voters rejected the idea that austerity is the only way –
and dumped a party that had treated the country as a sinecure for years.

The idea
that Labour can win an outright majority at a future general election by
winning some Conservative votes south of the border, at the same time as not
losing more core votes in the heartlands (it also lost an estimated five million
core voters between 1997 and 2010) and all the while without winning back
Scottish voters, is barking.

The idea
that the Ed Miliband election manifesto was too anti-business (as former
Chancellor and shadow chancellor Ed Balls claimed at the end of July) and too
left-wing to win in May is nonsense.

When
Miliband announced the idea of a crackdown on non doms, his and the party’s
ratings increased. And promising to tackle corporate tax evasion is not a
synonym for being anti-business – or if you think it is, then you have a
problem.

The right-wing
press got lucky in the spring: they latched onto something that caused swing
voters the real horrors: the idea of a coalition between Labour and the SNP.
There was a reason that, having once spotted the impact of that message, they
hammered it home for the final fortnight of campaigning.

To
reiterate: the idea that Labour can win a general election on the basis of
winning those same potential swing voters, without returning to winning ways in
Scotland, and without losing even more core voters elsewhere, is illogical
nonsense – at best.

This is
not about saying that Jeremy Corbyn is some sort of messiah: it is about
pointing out that people want an alternative to the busted flush of austerity –
even the IMF has warned the UK that the cuts are too much – and they do not
want a party that is interested only in winning for power’s sake.

They want
Labour to be an actual opposition – not limply abstaining on Bills that are set
to hurt many thousands of ordinary people. And claiming – as some have – that
such things would make Labour just a ‘protest party’ is an avoidance of what
ordinary people are facing.

People want alternatives – that’s why smaller parties, from the Greens to UKIP, have been gaining support.

This entire process also
suggests the possible end of Blairism in the Labour Party – Liz Kendall, the
Blairite candidate for the leadership, was absolutely mullered in the
constituency nominations, securing just 18 as opposed to Yvette Cooper’s 109,
Andy Burnham’s 111 and Corbyn’s 152.

All this
the neo-liberals and right-wing know.

And that
is why they’re not laughing at Corbyn any more.

Whether he
wins the election or not, he has changed the nature of the debate and triggered
a reinvigoration of political discourse reminiscent of what was seen during the
Scottish referendum campaign a year ago.

If you
like hegemonies, that’s not good.

So, in the
remaining days of the campaign, the best that could happen would be for
Kendall, Cooper and Burnham to stop condemning Corbyn and his supporters – and
to concentrate on suggesting some policies that show that they do believe in
something; indeed, that they believe that there is a meaningful alternative to
the policies of the current government.

Because,
if they do not believe even that simple little thing – then what is the point
of their being in opposition?

• For the
record, I am not registered to vote in the Labour leadership election and did
not apply to do so.

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London-based journalist, writer, photographer and artist, with one Other Half and three cats.
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